Barbara Heath

Barbara J. Heath, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, has just received a three-year Collaborative Research Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities for her project “Engaging the Piedmont: Transitions in Virginia Slavery 1730-1790.” Her work is also funded under the NEH “We the People” program, “which encourages and strengthens the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture.” For her research, Heath will excavate and analyze the archeological remains of 18th-century slave communities in the Virginia Piedmont.

Only 22 of these extremely competitive awards were announced in 2010. Heath’s grant of $240,000 exceeded all but two of these awards and comprises nearly 7 percent of the NEH’s total expenditures in their Collaborative Research Grants program.

Selected Publications

2010. Space and Place within Plantation Quarters in Virginia, 1700-1825. In Cabin, Quarter, Plantation: Architecture and Landscapes of North American Slavery, edited by Clifton Ellis and Rebecca Ginsburg. Yale University Press, pp. 156-176.